Prague, April 21 (CTK) – Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek wants to challenge with the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg the verdict with which a British court acquitted a British citizen who killed a Czech man last year, he said Friday.
He said the British court system does not offer any possibility of overruling the verdict.
Zaoralek said the petition must be filed with the court by the sister of the killed man and that the Czech Republic is ready to support her in her effort.
Expert in international law Vladimir Balas said the European Human Rights Court can recommend new proceedings, but the British legal system must enable this at the same time.
Zaoralek’s deputy Martin Smolek has negotiated about the case with representatives of the British prosecutor’s office in London.
Zaoralek said they are frustrated by the result, but added that the British court system does not allow the reopening of the proceedings.
However, the Czech Republic is not going to reconcile itself to the result and it will do everything for justice to be done.
“The European Human Rights Court is the only body that can order new proceedings and that, I believe, is capable of securing justice for which every normal man must call,” Zaoralek said.
He also spoke about the prepared petition for new proceedings with Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, under which the court falls.
Zaoralek said the evidence against the charged man was clear and that the same goes for the witnesses’ testimonies.
“The problem rests in that a lay jury, formed based on lots drawing, decides about guilt or non-guilt in the British legal system. The jury is not accountable to anyone and no one knows and must not know what led its members to issue the given verdict,” Zaoralek said.
He said representatives of the British prosecutor’s office told Czech diplomats that cases similar to that of the Czech beaten to death are rare in Britain, but that they happen from time to time.
“I say if this is so, then the system is imperfect. If it allows for deep, terrible injustice, it is defective. We cannot respect this and we must seek a way to change this,” Zaoralek said.
The verdict on the case which happened last September was given in early April.
A closed-circuit television camera showed Raymond Sculley, 29, attacking the Czech, who lived in Britain for a number of years, with a chain with a bicycle safety lock and hitting him in the head several times. He then stood above his victim and witnesses testified that he told the lying man to look at what he forced him to do.
According to a post-mortem, the Czech bled to death.
The perpetrator who was not even found guilty of wilful killing claimed that he acted in self-defence.
